Splunk AppDynamics vs WhatsUp Gold comparison

Splunk and Progress Software are both solutions in the Application Performance Monitoring (APM) and Observability category. Splunk is ranked #3 with an average rating of 8.1, while Progress Software is ranked #29 with an average rating of 8.7. Splunk holds a 3.7% mindshare in APM, compared to Progress Software’s 1.1% mindshare. Additionally, 91% of Splunk users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 85% of Progress Software users who would recommend it.

Splunk AppDynamics

Read 260 Splunk AppDynamics reviews

15,142 Views
11,357 Comparison Views

91% willing to recommend

WhatsUp Gold

Read 25 WhatsUp Gold reviews

5,476 Views
1,533 Comparison Views

85% willing to recommend

Splunk AppDynamics

WhatsUp Gold

Comparison Buyer's Guide

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Executive SummaryUpdated on Nov 23, 2025

WhatsUp Gold and Splunk AppDynamics are both products in the IT operations management sector. WhatsUp Gold has an edge in pricing and support, while Splunk AppDynamics is favored for its advanced features.

Features: WhatsUp Gold provides robust network monitoring, excellent network visibility, and user-friendly interfaces for topology mapping and device discovery. In contrast, Splunk AppDynamics focuses on application performance management, offering in-depth insights, predictive analytics, and end-user monitoring capabilities.

Room for Improvement: WhatsUp Gold could benefit from enhancements in its alerting system usability, advanced integration options, and more detailed application monitoring. Splunk AppDynamics might improve by simplifying initial deployment, refining its extensive dashboard customizations, and reducing false positives in alerts.

Ease of Deployment and Customer Service: WhatsUp Gold stands out with its straightforward deployment and efficient customer support, ideal for those with limited IT resources. In contrast, Splunk AppDynamics, while more complex to install, provides a broad support network and comprehensive documentation to assist in the setup phase.

Pricing and ROI: WhatsUp Gold is cost-effective with low initial costs offering significant returns, whereas Splunk AppDynamics, though more expensive upfront, justifies its cost with advanced features delivering high ROI through performance optimization.

To learn more, read our detailed Splunk AppDynamics vs. WhatsUp Gold Report (Updated: February 2026).

Buyer's Guide

Splunk AppDynamics vs. WhatsUp Gold

February 2026

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Review summaries and opinions

We asked business professionals to review the solutions they use. Here are some excerpts of what they said:

Categories and Ranking

Splunk AppDynamics

Ranking in Application Performance Monitoring (APM) and Observability

3rd

Ranking in IT Infrastructure Monitoring

6th

Average Rating

8.2

Reviews Sentiment

6.7

Number of Reviews

260

Ranking in other categories

IT Operations Analytics (2nd), Mobile APM (1st), Container Monitoring (3rd)

WhatsUp Gold

Ranking in Application Performance Monitoring (APM) and Observability

29th

Ranking in IT Infrastructure Monitoring

24th

Average Rating

7.8

Reviews Sentiment

6.2

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

Network Monitoring Software (26th), Server Monitoring (16th), Configuration Management (19th), Log Management (32nd), Cloud Monitoring Software (23rd), Network Traffic Analysis (NTA) (10th)

Mindshare comparison

As of February 2026, in the Application Performance Monitoring (APM) and Observability category, the mindshare of Splunk AppDynamics is 3.7%, down from 5.3% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of WhatsUp Gold is 1.1%, up from 0.5% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.

Application Performance Monitoring (APM) and Observability Market Share Distribution
Product	Market Share (%)
Splunk AppDynamics	3.7%
WhatsUp Gold	1.1%
Other	95.2%

Application Performance Monitoring (APM) and Observability

Featured Reviews

DevendraKumar1

Technology lead at Infosys

Has enabled us to detect issues instantly through alerts and monitor every service from a single dashboard

Splunk requires significantly more improvements compared to Splunk AppDynamics, specifically regarding the licensing aspect. Splunk renews licenses every six months, which is inconvenient. It would be better to have a one-year license to avoid needing to update keys constantly, which can only occur on weekends, making it a burdensome task. Although Splunk is better for certain use cases, Splunk AppDynamics is broader in functionality. Specifically, I want enhancements related to creating dashboards not only for logs or minor services but also for configuration levels, allowing us to check configurations immediately without manually opening the entire code when exceptions arise—a feature I wish to see improved in Splunk, although it may not be necessary for Splunk AppDynamics.

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Erik Cheng

Technical Manager at Quan Hung Gourmet

Efficient monitoring with detailed customization, yet complexity remains

The best feature of WhatsUp Gold is the automatic generation of topology and its integration with virtualization and wireless. I have used the automated device discovery with this topology feature. The interactive map feature helps me manage the topology because sometimes we cannot draw the topology correctly, so we need to manually edit the connections. The alerting system is very tunable and customizable, but it's a little complicated to use. Many customers cannot manage it by themselves and need support from us, the provider. We always use the dashboards in the SOC, where we constantly display a dashboard or multiple dashboards. This allows us to know immediately if the connection or bandwidth is full or if the connection is broken.

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Quotes from Members

We asked business professionals to review the solutions they use. Here are some excerpts of what they said:

Pros

"The most valuable feature of AppDynamics is that you can easily determine the load on the application."

"We can view the server activities, including issues in the process, with a single click."

"It has been stable, scalable and manageable."

"The most valuable feature is the ability to take a report, and in particular, a visual, and link it to actual application performance and then the consequences. This means you can show how an incident or action has an effect on the business."

"Visibility to the end-users is a valuable feature."

"What I like the most about Splunk AppDynamics is the end-to-end observability for the application, along with traces."

"The product has the ability to drill down to the errors whenever we have issues."

"It is a stable solution. Stability-wise, I don't see any problems in the solution...The solution's technical support was good."

More Splunk AppDynamics pros

"It handles the basics of monitoring."

"The best feature of WhatsUp Gold is the automatic generation of topology and its integration with virtualization and wireless."

"The product is reasonably priced."

"The tool's most valuable feature is the visibility it offers of everything in the network and infrastructure."

"The interface in the last few years it has been a lot greater, they are much more user-friendly. I like the interface."

"Auto scanning is most valuable. It looks for rogue devices on your network."

"The most valuable feature is the monitoring of resources."

"The installation and configuration process are easy."

More WhatsUp Gold pros

Cons

"When you have high stress of visits I do not know if you are more stress because of the amount of visits or because you have to wait eternal 60 seconds to find out it things are going well or you already have mess."

"We constantly need to improve our alert mechanism because we get a lot of false-positive alerts. These are not real errors. In addition, for end-user monitoring, sometimes, we are not able to catch all user activities. Because of not being able to follow the user activity from the start to the end, we are missing out on the performance issues."

"Unfortunately, the setup is quite expensive, which is the bad part of it because I want to spread my agent across the IT landscape, but that's very expensive."

"While it is scalable, it could be better."

"They could align the product strategy to evolve as a complete solution."

"AppDynamics is a solution that requires extra learning and could be more user-friendly. Additionally, automated reports would helpful similar to have they have in Google Analytics."

"If you have a single URL and all the operations are coming in as part of the header, you will not be able to segregate them for different actions."

"We would like to be able to easily use this solution to monitor our Java script based browsers, which are currently blocked by the security settings."

More Splunk AppDynamics cons

"Regional product team support is not very good."

"The new release cadence needs to be improved. It takes a while for them to add new features and functionality. There should be a quicker turnaround with new versions."

"The technical support does not bother to respond."

"I would like to see them do an enhancement to the application monitoring. A lot of other products do better application monitoring so they should do some improvements to the application monitoring."

"The licensing model could be improved. Right now, the levels are too far apart. This causes the solution to be more expensive than it needs to be."

"Adding on services increases the cost and on the version we have there is no option for ATM monitoring."

"The initial setup of WhatsUp Gold is a medium range of difficulty levels. However, if it is your first time it could be difficult."

"The interface needs some work."

More WhatsUp Gold cons

Pricing and Cost Advice

"The license for AppDynamics is procured by our customers."

"The tool is expensive."

"AppDynamics Database Monitoring requires a license for database monitoring and other features, while Dynatrace provides monitoring and other features out of the box without additional costs. Sometimes this makes it more challenging to pitch AppDynamics Database Monitoring to customers, especially because you need to buy a separate license. As an implementer, I have yet to learn about the pricing for AppDynamics Database Monitoring. Pricing is taken care of by the sales team."

"The pricing needs to come down."

"I believe there was probably an extra charge whenever I wanted to contact the support team."

"There is no standard license instead, the license is adapted to the organization's requirements."

"We have a license-based solution. That means you need a license for each server you monitor."

"This solution is not the cheapest but it works well. You will end up doing more work with a cheaper solution than if you just spent the extra money on a better solution like this one."

More Splunk AppDynamics pricing and cost advice

"There is a license needed to use WhatsUp Gold."

"I'm not sure, but it's expensive. We don't pay any additional fees."

"The tool's price is reasonable. WhatsUp Gold is cheaper than SolarWinds."

"This is a well priced solution."

"There are some subscription charges that are quite heavy. I need to pay for support every year and these charges can be quite expensive. Aside from the initial cost for the tool, you need to pay additionally for support."

"Pricing is reasonable compared to other products."

"The choice of version depends on the number of points, or devices, that you want to monitor, and this makes the product expensive."

"The pricing can be on the expensive side when considering competing products."

More WhatsUp Gold pricing and cost advice

See which vendors are best for you

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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Financial Services Firm

25%

Computer Software Company

10%

Manufacturing Company

Government

Financial Services Firm

12%

Manufacturing Company

12%

Government

10%

Computer Software Company

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	55
Midsize Enterprise	36
Large Enterprise	195

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	9
Midsize Enterprise	5
Large Enterprise	14

Questions from the Community

Any advice about APM solutions?

There are many factors and we know little about your requirements (size of org, technology stack, management systems, the scope of implementation). Our goal was to consolidate APM and infra monitor...

See all answers

What do you like most about AppDynamics?

The solution saves time and cost.

See all answers

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for AppDynamics?

I would rate the pricing an eight out of ten. The solution is highly expensive. Our company pays for the solution on a yearly basis, if we don't add new modules or features to the license, we need ...

See all answers

What do you like most about WhatsUp Gold?

The interactive mapping interface for scrolling, zooming, and drilling down on an element to learn about a network issue is good. When we see a network there will sometimes be a spot that has one l...

See all answers

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for WhatsUp Gold?

Clients find the licensing calculator confusing, but we simplify this for them by collecting relevant information first. The licensing is based on devices, providing better cost-effectiveness than ...

See all answers

What needs improvement with WhatsUp Gold?

It would be great if WhatsUp Gold could add features that simplify management with AI, as it is currently too complicated to manage.

See all answers

Comparisons

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Compared 10% of the time

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Compared 5% of the time

PRTG Network Monitor vs Splunk AppDynamics

Compared 3% of the time

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Compared 4% of the time

LibreNMS vs WhatsUp Gold

Compared 4% of the time

SCOM vs WhatsUp Gold

Compared 3% of the time

NinjaOne vs WhatsUp Gold

Compared 3% of the time

Nutanix Prism vs WhatsUp Gold

Compared 3% of the time

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Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

Splunk AppDynamics

January 2026

Download Splunk AppDynamics product report

Buyer's Guide

WhatsUp Gold

January 2026

Download WhatsUp Gold product report

Overview

Splunk AppDynamics is a comprehensive performance monitoring tool providing end-to-end transaction tracking, real-time monitoring, and a user-friendly interface. With AI-powered features, it enhances operational efficiency and resilience by offering insights into user interactions and infrastructure issues.

Splunk AppDynamics excels in monitoring applications and infrastructure performance, offering extensive support across environments like AWS and cloud. It aids in application performance monitoring, end-user experience, database analysis, and proactive incident detection. Supporting Java, .NET, and other technologies, it provides real-time insights into application health, resource utilization, and transaction tracking, ensuring reliable user experiences. Challenges remain in UI complexity, agent-based architecture, integration with diverse environments, and documentation clarity. Its licensing model is costly, and customer support may be slow. Performance concerns exist in historical data granularity and network visibility.

What features make Splunk AppDynamics stand out?

End-to-End Transaction Tracking: Monitors entire user transactions for comprehensive visibility.
Real-Time Monitoring: Provides instant insights into system performance.
AI-Powered Anomaly Detection: Identifies anomalies with advanced machine learning techniques.
Code-Level Troubleshooting: Diagnoses issues at the code level for precise fixes.
Business Transaction Visibility: Offers detailed views into transaction flow across all system layers.

What benefits and ROI can users expect from Splunk AppDynamics?

Improved Application Performance: Enhances system efficiency and reliability.
Operational Efficiency: Streamlines monitoring and issue resolution processes.
Enhanced Business Resilience: Strengthens the ability to adapt to performance challenges.
Seamless User Experiences: Ensures uninterrupted service and user satisfaction.

Organizations in industries like finance and healthcare implement Splunk AppDynamics to monitor critical applications and infrastructure. Its capabilities in transaction tracking and AI-driven insights are crucial for maintaining system reliability, supporting technologies such as Java and .NET, and ensuring optimal resource utilization.

Splunk

Explore and manage your entire network infrastructure effortlessly with WhatsUp Gold's robust layer 2/3 discovery, creating a detailed interactive map from the edge to the cloud. Monitor devices, wireless controllers, servers, virtual machines, applications, and traffic flows across various environments. Real-time alerts ensure optimal performance, allowing you to meet or exceed SLAs. The platform offers customizable maps, dashboards, and alerts for easy network management. Quickly resolve issues with intuitive workflows, reducing Mean Time to Resolution (MTTR). WhatsUp Gold's integrated log management provides easy visibility and control of device log data, allowing monitoring, filtering, searching, and alerting on syslogs or Windows logs. Archive logs to comply with regulatory requirements and preserve historical data, all through a user-friendly interface. Streamline network monitoring and issue resolution with WhatsUp Gold, making network management efficient and hassle-free.

Progress Software

Sample Customers

Cisco, Sony, Nasdaq, Reserve Bank of New Zealand, Edmunds.com, Puma, Fox News, DirecTV, Pizza Hut, T-Systems, Cornell University, OpenTable, BITMARCK, Green Mountain Power, Care.com, Overstock, Paddy Power, eHarmony, Kraft, The Motley Fool, The Container Store, and more See more customers

Artoni Trasporti, Austin Independent School District, Banca Marche, Burke County North Carolina, Cambridge University School of Clinical Medicine, Clayco, Community Integrated Care, Desca, Deutsche Bergbau, Flexi-Van, Gropper, Hamleys, Hammonds Furniture, Knowledge IT, Idras S.P.A., Sibeg, Swann Engineering, Trivium Lindenhof

Buyer's Guide

Splunk AppDynamics vs. WhatsUp Gold

February 2026

Free Report: Splunk AppDynamics vs. WhatsUp Gold

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